Mediated construction of an ideal gendered manager and employee

SUMMARY This study analyzes constructions of an ideal gendered manager and employee in a mediated cultural setting. Our contemporary culture is mediated in many ways: Media is strongly embedded in our lives and has a possibility to select what issues become visible and how those issues are represented. In that way, media shapes our understandings of the world and how we make sense of it. In this interdisciplinary work, the theoretical framework is built upon the doing gender perspective, which understands gender as something we do and as something dynamic. By adopting a poststructuralist view on gender, I understand it as socially and culturally constructed. In such an approach, the focus of the study expands from the individual level into contexts, social and cultural structures, and settings. Thus, the interest of the study is not on individual women or men as such, but rather on how they are represented and how they and their meanings are constructed (Ahl 2007; Henry et al. 2016) in different media texts. This dissertation provides an alternative way to study constructions of gender in business studies by focusing on media texts and combining several empirical document materials with diverse analytical methods. The empirical materials comprise academic peer-reviewed journal articles, face value articles from The Economist newspaper, and job advertisements published online in Finland and Estonia. I employ methods stemming from cultural studies, such as close reading and visual analysis, which are only seldom used in business studies, and discourse analytical methods. The compilation thesis consists of a synthesis part and four independent studies, the latter of which complete the aim by exposing the studied phenomenon from different viewpoints. The first study explores the research methods scholars have used when empirically studying doing gender thinking, and argues for the relevance of document materials. The second study examines how femininity and gendered power are enacted in The Economist, and shows that the representations of global top women managers are still relatively traditional and done in a way that does not disturb the masculine discourse of management. The third study focuses on the constructions of ideal prospective employees in job advertisements published in Finland and Estonia, and depicts how the coding of gender varies culturally. The fourth independent study discovers how the gendering of expert work takes place in job advertisements by rendering subtly gendered articulations while allowing for interpretative repertoires to appear. I argue that the constructions of an ideal manager and employee are gendered, and that the gendering processes are complex and multifaceted, and they depend on cultural settings and prevailing social orders. Interestingly, gendering seems to happen at different levels of working life, as I have studied employees and managers in both global and local contexts. This study provides theoretical contributions by anchoring the doing gender perspective more deeply into business studies and by showing the ubiquitous and fluid nature of gender. At the societal level, this study is relevant not only in its timeliness but also in the sense that media representations and constructions of ideals have an impact on individuals and their real lives in many ways. The current thesis provides re-readings of culture and gender and offers methodologically new ways of empirically studying constructions of gender in the business context. Future studies would benefit from using doing gender as an approach and studying it empirically with more creative methods than what has been done so far. Keywords: doing gender, mediation of culture, women manager, ideal employee, document materialsTIIVISTELMÄ Tarkastelen väitöskirjassani ideaalin johtajan ja työntekijän sukupuolittunutta rakentumista medioituneessa kulttuurisessa ympäristössä. Kulttuurimme on medioitunut monin tavoin: media on vahvasti ja yhä kasvavasti läsnä arjessamme, ja se voi kiinnittää huomiomme joihinkin asioihin ja käsitellä näitä asioita haluamallaan tavalla. Media muokkaa maailmankuvaamme ja ymmärrystämme siitä. Tieteidenvälisessä tutkimuksessani teoreettinen viitekehys rakentuu sukupuolen tuottamisen teorian ympärille, jossa sukupuoli ymmärretään dynaamisena ja sosiaalisesti tuotettuna. Omaksumalla poststrukturalistisen näkökulman sukupuoleen, tulkitsen sukupuolen sosiaalisesti ja kulttuurisesti rakentuneena. Siten tutkimuksen näkökulma laajenee yksilöistä konteksteihin, sosiaalisiin ja kulttuurisiin rakenteisiin ja puitteisiin, joissa sukupuolta tuotetaan. Näin ollen tutkimuksen mielenkiinto ei kohdistu yksittäisiin naisiin tai miehiin, vaan pikemminkin siihen, kuinka heitä representoidaan erilaisissa mediateksteissä ja kuinka niiden saamat merkitykset rakentuvat. (Ahl 2007; Henry et al. 2016) Väitöskirjani tarjoaa vaihtoehtoisen tavan tutkia sukupuolta liiketaloustieteessä keskittymällä mediateksteihin ja yhdistämällä monipuolisia empiirisiä dokumenttiaineistoja useisiin analyyttisiin menetelmiin. Tutkimukseni aineistot koostuvat akateemisista vertaisarvioiduista journaaliartikkeleista, The Economist -lehdessä julkaistuista henkilökuva-artikkeleista sekä Suomessa ja Virossa sähköisesti julkaistuista työpaikkailmoituksista. Käytän tutkimuksessani kulttuurintutkimuksesta juontuvia menetelmiä, kuten lähilukua ja visuaalista analyysiä, joita on toistaiseksi käytetty vain vähän liiketaloustieteellisissä tutkimuksissa, sekä diskurssianalyyttisiä menetelmiä. Tutkielmani koostuu synteesiosasta ja neljästä itsenäisestä tutkimuksesta. Itsenäiset osatutkimukset täydentävät kokonaisuutta lähestymällä tutkimuskohdetta erilaisista näkökulmista. Ensimmäinen tutkimus tarkastelee menetelmiä, joita tutkijat ovat käyttäneet tutkiessaan sukupuolen tuottamista empiirisesti ja se argumentoi dokumenttiaineistojen tärkeydestä. Toinen tutkimus tarkastelee kuinka feminiinisyyttä ja sukupuolittunutta valtaa käsitellään The Economist -lehdessä ja osoittaa, että kansainvälisten huippunaisjohtajien representaatiot ovat edelleen melko perinteisiä ja esitetty siten, etteivät ne häiritse johtamisen maskuliinista diskurssia. Kolmas tutkimus fokusoi siihen, miten tulevia ideaalityöntekijöitä rakennetaan työpaikkailmoituksissa Suomessa ja Virossa ja näyttää millä tavoin sukupuolen koodaaminen ilmoituksiin vaihtelee kulttuurisesti. Neljännessä itsenäisessä tutkimuksessa havaittiin kuinka asiantuntijatyön sukupuolittaminen artikuloidaan työpaikkailmoituksissa hienovaraisesti sallimalla useiden tulkintarepertuaarien samanaikainen olemassaolo. Väitän, että ideaali johtajan ja työntekijän konstruktio on sukupuolittunut ja että sukupuolittumisen prosessi on kompleksinen ja monitahoinen ja riippuvainen ympäröivästä kulttuurisesta kontekstista ja sosiaalisista tilanteista. Kiinnostavaa on, että sukupuolittuminen näyttäisi tapahtuvan työelämän eri tasoilla, tutkiessani sekä johtajia että työntekijöitä ja liikkuessani sekä globaalilla että paikallisella tasolla. Tutkimukseni teoreettinen kontribuutio ankkuroi sukupuolen tuottamisen teoriaa vahvemmin liiketaloudelliseen tutkimukseen, ja osoittaa sukupuolen liikkuvan ja kaikkialla läsnä olevan luonteen. Yhteiskunnallisella tasolla työni on tärkeä ajankohtaisen aiheensa lisäksi erityisesti siksi, että mediarepresentaatiot ja konstruktiot ideaaleista vaikututtavat yksilöiden elämään monella tapaa. Tutkielmani tarjoaa uudelleenlukuja sukupuolesta ja kulttuurista, ja osoittaa metodologisesti uusia tapoja tutkia sukupuolen rakentumista liiketaloudessa. Tulevaisuuden tutkimukset voisivat hyötyä käyttämällä sukupuolen tuottamisen teoriaa lähestymistapanaan ja tutkimalla sitä nykyistä luovemmilla menetelmillä. Avainsanat: sukupuolen tuottaminen, kulttuurin medioituminen, naisjohtaja, ideaali työntekijä, dokumenttiaineisto

Anthropology of Color

The field of color categorization has always been intrinsically multi- and inter-disciplinary, since its beginnings in the nineteenth century. The main contribution of this book is to foster a new level of integration among different approaches to the anthropological study of color. The editors have put great effort into bringing together research from anthropology, linguistics, psychology, semiotics, and a variety of other fields, by promoting the exploration of the different but interacting and complementary ways in which these various perspectives model the domain of color experience. By so doing, they significantly promote the emergence of a coherent field of the anthropology of color

Convergence Culture Reconsidered

Taking media scholar Henry Jenkins’s concept of ‘convergence culture’ and the related notions of ‘participatory culture’ and ‘transmedia storytelling’ as points of departure, the essays compiled in the present volume provide terminological clarification, offer exemplary case studies, and discuss the broader implications of such developments for the humanities. Most of the contributions were originally presented at the transatlantic conference "Convergence Culture Reconsidered" organized by the editors at the Georg-August-Universität Göttingen, Germany, in October 2013. Applying perspectives as diverse as literary, cultural, and media studies, digital humanities, translation studies, art history, musicology, and ecology, they assemble a stimulating wealth of interdisciplinary and innovative approaches that will appeal to students as well as experts in any of these research areas

Convergence Culture Reconsidered

Taking media scholar Henry Jenkins’s concept of ‘convergence culture’ and the related notions of ‘participatory culture’ and ‘transmedia storytelling’ as points of departure, the essays compiled in the present volume provide terminological clarification, offer exemplary case studies, and discuss the broader implications of such developments for the humanities. Most of the contributions were originally presented at the transatlantic conference Convergence Culture Reconsidered organized by the editors at the Georg-August-Universität Göttingen, Germany, in October 2013. Applying perspectives as diverse as literary, cultural, and media studies, digital humanities, translation studies, art history, musicology, and ecology, they assemble a stimulating wealth of interdisciplinary and innovative approaches that will appeal to students as well as experts in any of these research areas

Reviewing the Impact of the National Strategies Design and Technology Framework for Key Stage Three: A small-­‐scale evaluation of the Design and Technology Framework in England

Since the beginning of Design and Technology (D&T) in the English secondary school curriculum, the teaching of design has been identified as less effective than that of making. Research Questions: What are the experiences of pupils between the ages of 12 and 14 of design learning? Purpose of Study: In 2004 as part of the National Strategies, the D&T framework was launched, aiming to support the teaching of design skills. This is a small-­‐scale study, which begins to explore the experiences of pupils and teachers in four schools in the Northwest of England. Research Methods: The study used a mixed methods approach, gathering quantitative and qualitative data in a questionnaire with a convenience sample of school pupils. The questionnaire responses are analysed alongside qualitative interviews with D&T teachers from the schools. Findings: The findings indicate that many pupils had a clear understanding of the role of designing. However, some common assumptions of the nature of design activity centering on the act of sketching or drawing were evident. The majority of pupils were unable to accurately identify the names of many of the design activities introduced as part of the framework. Conclusions: Whilst some progress has been made in the teaching of design, through the use of design activities introduced in the D&T Framework, the support experienced by teachers was limited and were not sustained beyond the initial training. There are implications for initial teacher educators in supporting beginning teachers and balancing the tensions trainees experience whilst on placements in school. Key Words: Design, designing, pedagogy, teacher educatio

Affordances theory in multilingualism studies

The concept of affordances originating in Gibson’s work (Gibson, 1977) is gaining ground in multilingualism studies (cf. Aronin and Singleton, 2010; Singleton and Aronin, 2007; Dewaele, 2010). Nevertheless, studies investigating affordances in respect of teaching, learning or using languages are still somewhat rare and tend to treat isolated aspects of multilingualism. This is despite the fact that the theory of affordances can actually provide a valuable, supplementary, up-to-date framework within which a clearer, sharper description and explication of the intriguing range of attributes of multilingual communities, educational institutions and individuals, as well as teaching practices, become feasible. It is important that not only researchers and practitioners (teachers, educators, parents, community and political actors) but also language users and learners themselves should be aware of how to identify or, if necessary, design new affordances for language acquisition and learning. The aim of this article is to adapt the concept of affordances to multilingualism studies and additional language teaching, and in so doing advance theoretical understanding in this context. To this end the article contains a brief summary of the findings so far available. The article also goes further into defining the ways of how affordances work in relation to multilingualism and second language teaching and puts forward an integrated model of affordances

English-Medium Instruction in European Higher Education

This volume provides a focused account of English Medium Instruction (EMI) in European higher education, considering issues of ideologies, policies, and practices. This is an essential book for academics, students, policy makers, and educators directly or indirectly implicated in the internationalization of European higher education

Looduskujutuse semiootika: looduskirjanduse näitel

Töö eesmärgiks on avada uusi perspektiive looduskirjanduse uurimisel, kombineerides selleks semiootika ja ökokriitika vahendeid. Tartu-Moskva koolkonna semiootikutelt pärinevad primaarsete ja sekundaarsete modelleerivate süsteemide mõisted. Primaarseks modelleerivaks süsteemiks on nende käsitluses keel kui vahendatud inimsuhtluse põhiline vahend. Sekundaarsed modelleerivad süsteemid nagu kirjandus, film ning paljud teised kunstilise väljenduse liigid põhinevad keelel kui märgisüsteemil, tegeledes meid ümbritseva maailma kunstilise modelleerimisega. Ameerika semiootik Thomas A. Sebeok osutas, et neile, puhtalt inimliigile omastele modelleerivatele süsteemidele, eelneb nii inimeste kui teiste loomade puhul zoosemiootilise modelleerimise tasand, mis põhineb meie tajudel ja kehalisel kogemusel maailmaga suhestumisel. Jakob von Uexkülli mõistet kasutades põhineb zoosemiootiline modelleerimine omailmal (Umwelt) ehk liigispetsiifiliste taju- ja mõjuorganite koostoimel loodaval arusaamal oma keskkonnast ning sellega suhestumise viisidest. Seega võime lähtuda tõdemusest, et modelleerimine on igasuguse mõtestamis- ja kujutamistegevuse alus. Mudel on kommunikatsioonivahend, mis võimaldab nii kunstilist kui teaduslikku infoedastust. Inimliigile omane modelleerimine toimub peaasjalikult loomuliku keele ning selles keeles esitatavate representatsioonide abil. Representatsiooni all mõistan käesolevas töös keskkonna vahendatud esitamist inimkeele kasutamise erijuhu – kirjanduse – vahenditega. Oma töös uurin kirjanduse spestiifilist alaliiki – looduskirjandust. Eesti looduskirjandus kitsamas mõttes on algupäraselt eesti keeles kirjutatud dokumentaalproosa, mis põhineb autori isiklikel looduskogemustel ning loodusteaduslikul informatsioonil ja annab seda edasi kirjanduslikus keeles. Looduskirjandus on tekstuaalse ülesehituse põhimõtetelt sarnane ilukirjandusega, mistõttu teda saab uurida kirjandusteaduslike vahenditega, nagu seda teeb ökokriitika. Erinevalt kirjandustekstist suunab looduskirjandus oma lugejat tekstist läbi, tagasi selle reaalse (loodus)keskkonna juurde, mida tekstis on kujutatud. Iga tekst sisaldab varjatud või vähem varjatud kujul alati ka zoosemiootilise modelleerimise tasandit: tajud, teiste liikide omailmad, liikumis- ja toitumisviisid jm. Biosemiootika aitab seda kihistust nähtavaks teha. Lisaks on töös kasutatud ka teiste distsipliinide abi (botaanika, ajalugu). See ajendab töö viimases osas mõtisklusi distsipliinideülese koostöö võimalustest suunaga keskkonnahumanitaaria poole, et anda oma panus globaalsete keskkonnaprobleemide lahendamisse. Semiootilise mõttevahetuse seisukohalt on oluline töös esitatud mõistete tekst, omailm, mudel ja representatsioon omavaheline suhestamine näitamaks, kuidas looduskirjanduses nende abil tähendusi luuakse. Representatsiooni mõiste lähivaatluse abil jõuame parema arusaamani inimese kui liigi tähendusloomepraktikatest, aga ka nende kasutamisest liikideüleses kommunikatsioonis.The aim of the present thesis is to open up new perspectives in the study of nature writing, combining semiotic and ecocritical approaches. The idea of primary and secondary modelling systems originates from Tartu-Moscow school of semiotics. In their works, human language is considered as primary modelling system – it is the main means of mediated human communication. Secondary modelling systems, such as literature, film, and many others that deal with artistic modelling of the world, are based on language as a sign system. Thomas A. Sebeok, an American semiotician, pointed out that those exclusievly human modelling systems are preceded by a zoosemiotic level of modelling that is based on our sensory and bodily experience in relating to the material world. Using the concept coined by Jakob von Uexküll, we can say that zoosemiotic modelling is based on Umwelt, or the life-world as formed in the combination of the species-specific sensory organs and the repertoire of possible ways of relating to the environment around us. Thus we can proceed from the understanding that modelling is the foundation of all interpretational and representational activities. Model is a means of communication that enables both artistic and scientific propagation of information. Modelling characteristic of human species takes place mainly with the help of human language and by representations created in human language. Representation is understood in the present work in the limits of language-mediated descriptions of environment as they appear in literary texts. The material for my work comes from a specific sub-field of literature, namely nature writing. Estonian nature writing in a narrow sense is understood as documentary prose that is based on the author’s personal experiences in nature, informed by knowledge of natural history and biology in general, and written in literary language. In regard of textual poetics, nature writing is similar to fiction, and can therefore be studied using the means of literary studies, as traditionally done in ecocriticism. What is different in case of nature writing, is that unlike fiction, it invites its reader to move beyond the text, to the natural environment that has been represented in a piece of nature writing. More or less explicitly, each literary text also contains the level of zoosemiotic modelling: senses, Umwelten of other species, their ways of movement, feeding, etc. Biosemiotic analysis helps to bring this layer of modelling to the fore. In addition, the work contains articles written in co-operation with researchers from other disciplines (botanics, history). Stemming from that experience, the last part of the cover article is devoted to questions related to cross-disciplinary co-operation in connection to the notion of environmental humanities, in order to contribute to the search for solutions to our global environmental problems. It is proposed that the original contribution of the present work into the general semiotic discussion lies in relating the concepts of text, Umwelt, model, and representation to each other and demonstrating how meaning is created in in nature writing in their interplay. By analysing the notion of representation, a better understanding of human sign-use practices is achieved, ass well as a bettern understanding of the application possibilities of human signification in inter-species communication

Finnishness, Whiteness and Coloniality

This multidisciplinary volume reflects the shifting experiences and framings of Finnishness and its relation to race and coloniality. The authors centre their investigations on whiteness and unravel the cultural myth of a normative Finnish (white) ethnicity. Rather than presenting a unified definition for whiteness, the book gives space to the different understandings and analyses of its authors. This collection of case-studies illuminates how Indigenous and ethnic minorities have participated in defining notions of Finnishness, how historical and recent processes of migration have challenged the traditional conceptualisations of the nation-state and its population, and how imperial relationships have contributed to a complex set of discourses on Finnish compliance and identity. With an aim to question and problematise what may seem self-evident aspects of Finnish life and Finnishness, expert voices join together to offer (counter) perspectives on how Finnishness is constructed and perceived. Scholars from cultural studies, history, sociology, linguistics, genetics, among others, address four main topics: 1) Imaginations of Finnishness, including perceived physical characteristics of Finnish people; 2) Constructions of whiteness, entailing studies of those who do and do not pass as white; 3) Representations of belonging and exclusion, making up of accounts of perceptions of what it means to be ‘Finnish’; and 4) Imperialism and colonisation, including what might be considered uncomfortable or even surprising accounts of inclusion and exclusion in the Finnish context. This volume takes a first step in opening up a complex set of realities that define Finland’s changing role in the world and as a home to diverse populations

Finnishness, whiteness and coloniality

This multidisciplinary volume reflects the shifting experiences and framings of Finnishness and its relation to race and coloniality. The authors centre their investigations on whiteness and unravel the cultural myth of a normative Finnish (white) ethnicity. Rather than presenting a unified definition for whiteness, the book gives space to the different understandings and analyses of its authors. This collection of case-studies illuminates how Indigenous and ethnic minorities have participated in defining notions of Finnishness, how historical and recent processes of migration have challenged the traditional conceptualisations of the nation-state and its population, and how imperial relationships have contributed to a complex set of discourses on Finnish compliance and identity. With an aim to question and problematise what may seem self-evident aspects of Finnish life and Finnishness, expert voices join together to offer (counter) perspectives on how Finnishness is constructed and perceived. Scholars from cultural studies, history, sociology, linguistics, genetics, among others, address four main topics: 1) Imaginations of Finnishness, including perceived physical characteristics of Finnish people; 2) Constructions of whiteness, entailing studies of those who do and do not pass as white; 3) Representations of belonging and exclusion, making up of accounts of perceptions of what it means to be ‘Finnish’; and 4) Imperialism and colonisation, including what might be considered uncomfortable or even surprising accounts of inclusion and exclusion in the Finnish context. This volume takes a first step in opening up a complex set of realities that define Finland’s changing role in the world and as a home to diverse populations.VertaisarvioitupeerReviewe